Are We Getting Close To Flying Taxis? (knpr.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from public news station KNPR about how close weare flying taxi services: The dream of flying cars is as at least as old as the automobile itself. Bell, which makes attack helicopters for the U.S. Navy, is working on this new project with another high-profile partner, Uber. The prototype, the Bell Nexus, was unveiled earlier this year. Boeing and Airbus also have prototypes of these flying cars in the works. Uber has become the face of the aerial mobility movement as it has the most public campaign touting its work so far. Elon Musk says he'll get us to Mars. Uber says it'll get a millennial from San Francisco to San Jose in 15 minutes flat (instead of the two-hour slog in morning traffic). And its timeline for this flying taxi that does not yet exist is 2023...

NASA is another Uber partner. While Jaiwon Shin, NASA's associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, thinks Uber is being a little bullish -- he'd put the timeline further out, to the mid-2020s -- Shin says it's close. "Convergence of many different technologies are maturing to the level that now aviation can benefit to put these things together," he said. The batteries that power electric cars can evolve further, to power flight. Companies can stockpile and pool data, and build artificial intelligence to take over air traffic control, managing the thousands of drones and taxis in the air.

And Uber, his partner, is really well-connected. While fighting the legacy taxi industry, Uber made so many government and lobbyist contacts, that that Rolodex can help grease the wheels -- or wings.
"While no flying taxi exists yet, Uber has dared to estimate the 'near-term' cost of that San Francisco to San Jose trip: $43," the article reports -- suggesting that could create a new division in society.

"With flying cars, the haves can escape to the air and leave the have-nots forgotten in their potholes."

Comments

Cost and benefits

[JaredOfEuropa]

We're mostly still strapping scaled up drone engines to pods... on the drawing board These things will fly, there's no doubt about that. The real question: how do these things compare to the next best thing, helicopters? Are they quieter? Cheaper to operate? Safer? Faster? There's a few interesting designs like the Bell one that appear to be able to transition from vertical lift produced by the fans to horizontal flight supported by lifting surfaces. But if they do not perform significantly better or run cheaper than helicopters, there's not much reason to believe they'll transform transportation any more than helicopters already have.

Uber says it'll get a millennial from San Francisco to San Jose in 15 minutes flat

That's great. Who's the lucky millennial?